Did You Hear About The Conservative Blogger Who Got Pepper Sprayed While 'Infiltrating' Occupy DC?

On Saturday, Occupy DC (Occupy Wall Street's Washington arm) was in full march mode, 100 people strong — but they didn't know they had a spy in their midst.

Patrick Howley is an editor at the conservative blog, The American Spectator. He infiltrated Occupy DC to expose how radical they are, but ended up getting pepper sprayed himself for leading a charge into the Air and Space Museum.

The protesters' plan was to enter the museum and stage a "die-in" — a demonstration where individuals lay down and play dead — at the foot of an exhibit displaying U.S. drone weapons. Remember, last week marked the 10th Anniversary of the Afghan War.

However, Howley, who led the charge up the steps and into the museum, ended up being the only protester that managed to get beyond the vestibule.

How's that for radical?

Howley's account is here. We have some of the better tidbits for you below:

After sneaking past the guard at the first entrance, I found myself trapped in a small entrance way outside the second interior door behind a muscle-bound left-wing fanatic and a heavyset guard. The fanatic shoved the guard and the guard shoved back, hard, sending this comrade — and, by domino effect, me — sprawling against the wall. After squeezing myself out from under him, I sprinted toward the door. Then I got hit....

As I scrambled away from the scene of my crime, a police officer outside the museum gates pointed at my eyes, puffed out his chest, and shouted: "Yeah, that's right. That's right." He was proud that I had been pepper-sprayed, and, oddly, so was I. I deserved to get a face full of high-grade pepper, and the guards who sprayed me acted with more courage than I saw from any of the protesters. If you're looking for something to commend these days in America, start with those guards.

To be fair, other publications, like Daily Kos, are reporting that there was no "muscle-bound left wing fanatic." However, arrests were made, and other protesters did get pepper sprayed. Some of the arrested are being held now on charges of resisting arrest. Others are nursing their wounds and plan to turn themselves in once they've healed a bit.

We couldn't find much information on Howley on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, so if you have any word on who this guy is, shoot us an e-mail, as we would love to know.

It might be interesting to find out more about someone who's willing to get pepper sprayed for something they don't believe in.

And you can check out a YouTube video of the sprayed protesters fleeing the museum below:

Correction: This specific protest was not an official Occupy DC event. It was an anti-war protest attended by many Occupy DCers. However, Howley did attend with the intention of exposing Occupy DC as radicals.